A TOP-LEVEL inquiry was under way today after a convicted murderer who battered an East Lancashire man to death was found dead in his cell.

John Paton, 61, who spent almost all his life behind bars, was serving a double-life sentence for killing two prison inmates.

He was found hanging from a ligature of torn sheeting in his single cell at Garth Prison, Leyland, yesterday.

In December 1977, Paton, then 41, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court to life imprisonment for the murder at Wakefield Prison of fellow inmate Robert Houston, 23, of Devonshire Drive, Clayton-le-Moors.

Paton had gone into Houston's cell in September 1976 during a row over illicitly-distilled home-made liquor and battered him about the head with a bed leg, causing him fatal head injuries.

Blackburn-born Houston was serving six years in the top security prison for his part in the robbery of 65-year-old Herbert Naylor, of Claremont Road, Accrington.

A Prison Service spokesman said an internal investigation had been launched into Paton's death, although there were no suspicious circumstances.

Born in Luton, Paton was abandoned by his parents when he was three. He started thieving when he was 13 and was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to nine years for burglary and a firearms offence in 1971.

In February 1982, Paton was given another life sentence at Winchester Crown Court for the manslaughter of fellow Parkhurst inmate Francis McGee, 32, from Belfast.

McGee was stabbed nine times with a tapered piece of steel as he queued for breakfast at the high security Isle of Wight jail.

The prison spokesman said Paton was found dead in his single cell at the morning "unlock".

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.